Curry & Beer

good call, he came 3rd in our BnF for this reason. Actually kicked some wicked goals from outside the paint too. I want that Bernie back please.

and the players fleeing the ship, and the injuries, and the jurrah scenario, and the underfunded footy department, and having 4 coaches in 9 years, and the tanking/loser's culture...(*gets noose)

Agreed. The selection of Brayshaw was the right one (although he may be slowing already) but the Stretch selection is premature. Again though, what do you do with 10 injuries and no depth, Roos himself will be out there soon

There's 10 on the injury list and 10 substandard players on the team sheet There's also at least 5 others that are up to it but in horrific form at present Hard times

definitely up there

Why would any player suddenly perform BETTER if thrown into a role that they are not naturally suited for, have not trained for and have no experience in There is a very high probability that they will perform WORSE

the latest rat to flee the sinking ship

how badly as a supporter group do we need a win FMD

not true, it is very obvious to me that we had a deal all stitched up involving pick 3+12(?) for somebody but Richmond's medical screwed us every chance to do the same this year, we don't need a PP to do it though

don't want it. Topping up draft handouts has gotten us nowhere except to contribute to a soft culture that may be permanently ingrained,

I'm not defending Dawes but this type of revisionism is silly. Of course if he plays a shocker and we get smashed, the next week you can bag him for it. It's easy. You wouldn't be bagging him if he played well and won - but it's the same exact act from the week earlier, how does what happened in the game change that? Besides, are we such a s0ftcock club that we don't even want our players to talk confidently in the media, because we don't want to upset the monster that is Hawthorn? Imagine if Dawes said 'honestly, Hawthorn are just a class above us. The best we can hope for is a 10-goal loss but it is more likely to be 100'. Would you now be praising him for his accuracy? Go ahead and critique his poor form but using some irrelevant media talk as ammo against him is just unfair and weak

This is my problem though - I know we are focusing on these two, but what about just about everyone else - we haven't even talked about cross, jamar, dawes, watts, grimes and howe to add to the 6 we have already discussed. For a number of others this discussion is 'not applicable' because of injury (Kent, Viney etc) or the fact that they are brand new and we can't compare them to last year (Garlett, Lumumba, Brayshaw etc). All the VFLNQRs have not moved from their low base. What you are left with is about 2 names that you can say have definitively improved on last year (Tommy Mac and Salem, possibly Garland because his 2014 was so awful)... seriously, can you name any others? That is almost our whole senior core that is currently at a lower level of performance than last year. My question is WHY is this happening? Maybe Jones and Tyson are excused for carrrying injuries but what about the rest? I can't accept that it is some coincidence that is going to turn itself around sooner or later. If have felt this way since about Round 3 and have been waiting patiently for these blokes to find form but it isn't happening. It makes me worry that something is wrong. I really hope you are right on your last paragraph - but as I said after the Hawks game,we have a major, major problem with our Peter Pan syndrome. Grimes and Watts are the latest to play a number of seasons and then fade into oblivion. Assumedly they will both be replaced by 18 year olds next year and the average games played stat remains the same. It has barely moved since Bailey came in and started replacing seniors with kids and it is hugely related to losing games of footy (as you note). Making it worse is the fact our average is inflated by these experienced imports (Dawes, Vince, Lumumba, Cross) who at the moment are not delivering what their equivalent 'games played' counterparts are at other clubs. Cheers

I find this excuse very annoying. If they are selected, they are fit. End of story. I don't get why exactly carrying a niggle somehow makes you a shadow of your former self. If the impact is so detrimental then take the time off needed to recover and come back when you can contribute like we know you are capable of. All you are doing by playing them is sapping everybody's confidence. Other clubs back their 'star' players in to play with niggles, because champions like Hodge just get BOG in spite of the niggle. This doesn't happen at Melbourne and it gets excused by too many. Furthermore, if this IS the case and these blokes are injured, WTF have we copped it so badly on the injury front. Inc. Salem, Petracca and Trengove we had NINE players unavailable last week. Now you are suggesting we can only expect half-games from Tyson and Jones. It is infuriating. I disagree that Jetta was in very good form before his injury. Like Dunn, he was down on the high standard he set himself last year. Like too many others, they are allowed by the supporters to skate by on past achievements. It's not good enough. Be a professional and keep bringing it every single week FFS. Why do we see demonstrations of players' abilities and then have to watch as they fail to reproduce it, it doesn't make any sense. Think about James Frawley - AA in his 3rd year and then what happened? Is Tommy Mac gonna be the same? I will throw Vince in also, 3rd in the B+F last year, wtf has happened to him? Surely the coach has to be accountable for these multiple concurrent form drop-offs. Pedersen got a game because there were 8 players unavailable in a bottom 4 side. Easily surpassed by a 6 gamer. Surely you are not really suggesting he is some sort of Roos success story. I think you are being far too generous in the things you are giving Roos credit for, and you are not mentioning the major concern of many others in several other threads - which is that it is a huge worry that the team seems to lack CARE and SPIRIT along with ability to execute the footy basics such as shepherding and manning up. As always they have no temprament to deal with even the slightest pressure. Surely the question gets aimed squarely at Roos on this point.

not the players in discussion couldn't do it huh

I said it was true last year but not this year. That is very plainly written. Try again

yeah thats what I thought zero answers zero substance

would any of the people who liked SPR's post like to answer this response please how about you dazzle? prove you didn't like it solely because it is disagreeing with me. Pathetic.

you're talking about 2014, in 2015 precisely zero of those things are true. Why?

How can you be so confident of his tenure given we are 29 games in out of 66, and we have had two of our three preseasons/trade-draft periods already.. yet the exposed form in four games this year has been horrific. As others have already stated, it is the fact that we do not seem to have turned any corner in terms of EFFORT, SPIRIT, HEART whatever you want to call it. I hope you are right obviously, but the questions raised in this thread are certainly worthy of being asked.

He doesn't seem to get the really hard questions, and when he does, he's an expert at evading them

This is the bit that's worrying me also. How many players on our list would you say are having a WORSE year then they did last year? Excluding new players, 0bviously, would it be fair to say that Tommy Mac is the ONLY player who has stepped up from last year? Most damaging is of course the midfield, Jamar, NJones, Tyson, Cross and Vince have ALL gone backwards. What in the name of God could possibly explain this and I would love to know Roosy's take on it. Not good at all.

uhhh look at the ORIGINAL post I was responding to, can't you read of course you can, just more disingenuous floggery

It's because they don't care. They don't really need to care anyway because they will continually be excused by supporters like dazzledavey who seem to be so used to getting flogged they have actually become fond of it, and are soft as tissue paper. As I said yesterday, if the scoreline was the other way around, Hawthorn supporters and players simply would not stand for it. They would not be out on the turps that night and the next week they would stand up and come out with a message. What do you think our message will be next week. something soft penned by dazzle I'm guessing, and another belting. I for one would like the 22 players on the ground to demonstrate they care even 10% as much as your average demonlander does about the jumper.

you should have been at the dinner to individually give them all a cuddle and tell them 'don't worry the supporters still love you, go ahead and lose by as much as you want' then a nice little hot chocky and a kiss on the forehead before bed. Soft soft soft. I am sure you said exactly the same thing after the early Bailey and Neeld floggings